Category: Book and Paper Conservation

Survey Results for Library and Archives Conservation Education

In 2016, The Library and Archives Conservation Education (LACE) Survey was commissioned by a consortium of American graduate-level conservation programs (SUNY Buffalo State, New York University, and the University of Delaware/Winterthur) to assist the Consortium in understanding employer expectations of entry-level conservators within research libraries and archives and as an aid in setting instructional priorities that will meet the changing environments of libraries and archives. The survey was funded as part of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Consortium retained the services of Robert Waller, president and senior risk analyst, and Tessa Thomas, both of Protect Heritage Corporation, to conduct the survey.

Protect Heritage obtained input from 29 conservators and preservation administrators at major research libraries, archives and regional centers who were identified as leaders in the field and to whom entry-level conservators report. The survey process consisted of twenty online questions and a telephone interview. Respondents were asked to identify and rank the skills, subject areas, and degree of mastery expected in entry-level conservators. They were also asked to indicate the degree to which this instruction should take place during graduate study vs. on-the-job training.

Survey respondents ranked two kinds of skills and competencies as most important for entry-level conservators to acquire primarily during graduate education: basic hands-on treatment skills and a broad functional knowledge of conservation techniques, theory, and ethics. They also expect that entry-level conservators will receive most of their training in documentation (written and photographic) and in material and conservation science during their graduate education. Other skills or competencies, such as advanced treatment skills and basic preventive conservation were identified as skills that would be partially learned on-the-job, building on a basic foundation laid during graduate education. Finally, competencies such as advanced preventive conservation skills and a functional knowledge of digitization, audiovisual preservation and reformatting could be largely developed on the job but respondents expected a reasonable degree of familiarity with the basic literature and issues developed during graduate education.

Many respondents also emphasized that it is imperative for entry-level conservators to understand, at least at a basic level, how this broad functional knowledge applies specifically to libraries and archives in contrast to museums. While many said parts of an MLIS were helpful, most did not feel it was necessary as long as entry-level conservators had a relevant masters degree and a sound understanding of the operational structural and research functions of libraries and archives that would inform their decision making and relationships with colleagues. They specifically recommended training in preservation management as applied to libraries and archives.

The survey also queried the importance of material-based competencies in the functional knowledge of the history, fabrication and conservation treatment of bound materials, paper and photographs. This functional knowledge of bound materials and paper was very important to most respondents. Functional knowledge of photographs was very important to 21% of respondents and moderately important to an additional 61%, suggesting that basic instruction in photographic conservation be included in the curriculum.

The complete survey report and appendices can be found at:
http://artconservation.buffalostate.edu/sites/artconservation.buffalostate.edu/files/uploads/LACEsurvey.pdf

Workshop: Lithography for Conservators and Museum Professionals: Hands-On Stone and Plate Lithography , Houston, TX

 
February 22-24, 2017
Burning Bones Press and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
**Open to conservators and museum professionals**

Lithography is a complex, chemical printmaking process that requires first-hand experience to fully grasp the technique and potential artistic applications. Conservators and museum professionals are often responsible for the technical identification of prints without having hands-on printmaking experience themselves. This workshop introduces participants to various lithographic processes and techniques commonly utilized by artists and studios, both historically and up to this day.

The workshop consists primarily of hands-on printing activities at Burning Bones Press but will also include lectures, group discussions and examination of prints in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) collection. A comprehensive resource binder will be assembled by the participants throughout the workshop from a combination of lecture slides, notes, printing materials (plates and prints), and other useful references. This will allow participants to walk away with a strong understanding of the technique and have invaluable resources at their fingertips.

This three-day intensive workshop is geared towards both emerging and established conservation and curatorial professionals, especially those who work regularly with lithographic prints.

With financial support from the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
Follow the link for more details and registration:
http://www.burningbonespress.com/lithography-for-conservators-and-museum-professionals-hands-on-stone-and-plate-lithography/
 
 

44th Annual Meeting – Workshop, May 14, "Gellan Gum Applications for Paper-based Objects"

I was very excited to see Gellan Gum Applications for Paper-based Objects listed on the workshops for AIC/CAC, but I was also a little worried about signing up. My familiarity with gums in paper conservation was limited to reading the odd DistList posting. Would it be too technical? Would I be in over my head?
Gellan Gum 4
I shouldn’t have worried. The facilitators from Library and Archives Canada and the Canadian Conservation Institute put me at easy immediately, and the group introductions reassured me I wasn’t the only novice in the group.
We began the morning with a presentation covering both a theoretical and practical introduction to gellan gum. Crystal Maitland did an excellent job of explaining the science behind the use of gellan gum without overwhelming us with too much technical detail. After the getting the theoretical grounding Doris St-Jacques, Greg Hill and Anne Maheux took over and shared some of the practical treatments which had been performed at CCI and LAC.
From there we headed down to the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s inviting lab. It’s always exciting to visit another institution “behind the scenes” and CCA’s facilities did not disappoint. Despite the large group everyone had their own workspace prepared for them with all the tools and samples we’d need for the day.
One of the real strengths of the workshop was exactly how much hands-on experience we gained. We split in to two groups to watch Doris and Greg prepare batches of gellan gum and then in to groups of three to give it a try ourselves. The process proved to be fairly simple, especially with the help of the excellent workshop leaflet. It included clear instructions and my favourite kind of diagram – one which does all the ratio math for me! In addition to the recipes the leaflet also included figures outlining the order of layers for different kinds of gellan gum cleaning and instructions for bleaching and deacidification. All together a very useful document.
Gellan Gum 5Gellan Gum 6
Every participant was provided with a print which had been cut in to four sections for testing cleaning, deacidifying and bleaching. Many participants also brought their own samples. This was an excellent bonus, allowing everyone to see the effects on a wide variety of materials.

Each group began by mixing up their own batch of gellan gum. These set by the end of the day, allowing us to test our handy work, but the facilitators had also prepared a large number of sheets of with a variety of concentrations and additives. It was very informative to be able to play around with the assortment. Very few institutions have to resources to create such a wide variety of gels just to allow their conservators to gain the experience of the different properties, making this an invaluable experience
.Gellan Gum 2
The gellan gum workshop accomplished something I was sure was possible at the start of the day. It allowed me to leave feeling confident enough in my skills that I’m looking forward to trying out gellan gum in my own lab. And if turning an intimidated rookie in to a confident tester isn’t the sign of a great workshop then I don’t know what is!
Gellan Gum 3

44th Annual Meeting – Saving and Preserving Family and Local History from Natural Disasters: Addressing Challenges from the Recent Earthquakes in Japan

This panel, presenting on the response to the tsunami in Japan in 2011, was composed of Masashi Amano, Kazuko Hioki, Tomoko Yasuda Ishimaru and Daishi Yoshihara. Drs. Amano and Yoshihara are both historians, and Ms. Yasuda is a conservator in private practice in Tokyo. Ms. Hioki is a conservator in the United States, and special thanks goes to her for her excellent translation during the question and answer sessions.
The presentations brought to light a number of interesting cultural differences that may be surprising to an audience from North America. The majority of public records (according to Dr. Yoshihara, the number may be as much as 90%) are held privately, rather than my public or governmental institution. This means that when a disaster occurs, it is often difficult to find out who is a stakeholder, what records are involved, or even where those records are. Often, historic sites contain records, but just as often records, historical and modern, can be found in attics and in community centers. This would include tax information, birth and death records and legal documents.
The prevalence of natural disasters in Japan makes creates another important difference.it It si very difficult for insurance companies, a very conservative business in Japan, to provide coverage in the event of a natural disaster. This means that public institutions and private collections cannot rely on the insurance industry to pay for recovery companies, and as a result, recovery companies have a much reduced presence in Japan. The end result is that, when natural disasters occur, Japanese individuals and institutions cannot rely on the same emergency response structure that we in North America.
The presenters spoke about their work helping disaster recovery after the 2011 tsunami, but much of their presentations focused on Shiryo-net (the Miyagi chapter which responded to the tsunami has an english language blog). Shiryo-net is a grassroots organization of historians and volunteers who respond to disasters specifically to deal with conservation issues, such as finding out where in a town records may be kept, rescuing those records, and performing triage treatment whenever possible. Shiryo-net formed after the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995, and has grown to 24 regional chapters across Japan.
Since its inception, Shiryo-net has focused on saving those 90% of documents that are not in museums, libraries and archives. Its activities are entirely funded by membership dues and donations. The organization first came into contact with conservation on a more formal basis in the wake of a flood in Hyogo prefecture in 2004. During this disaster, they were able to work with conservators to develop first aid treatments that could be taught easily to volunteers, and the difficulties they encountered encouraged them to host workshops and become a center of volunteer training for conservation volunteers. When another flood occurred in Hyogo in 2009, the response was much quicker, and the level of care given to documents was much better. Shiryo-net is now an experienced organization, and focuses on leadership training and volunteer education as well as disaster response.
The second major focus of the talks given by the presenters was on Shiryo-net’s response to the 2011 earthquake and Tsunami. The obvious difficulties of working in a disaster area were present, as were the difficulties of working with a large, non-professional force. Over the course of the recovery, Shiryo-net worked with over 5,000 volunteers, and had to develop techniques for training, supplying and managing such a large and ever-changing population. Because of the scale and scope of the disaster, salvage operations were ongoing as much as three years after the disaster. Since the tsunami, Shiryo-net has rescued more 70,000 items, with at least 50,00 items still in storage waiting to be treated.
The presentation was informative and engaging. It was interesting to hear about the different challenges faced in a different country, and how those challenges have been met or overcome. I would like to thank the presenters again for being so forthcoming with their talk materials as I prepared this post.

44th Annual Meeting, Book and Paper, May 17th, “TEK-Wiping Out the Competition: The Ideal Reusable Absorbent Material,” by Kaslyne O’Connor

This amazing material is made up of 55% cellulose and 45% polyester. It is formed by the process of hydroentangling, so it is a non-woven material. It does not contain any binders and its pH is naturally at about 6. It resists solvents and does not leave behind any residues. It has amazing wet strength, unlike blotters, and is dimensionally stable, so it won’t stretch when wet either.
Tek-Wipe is absorbent, reusable, sustainable, and economical. It costs significantly less than blotters. It is available for purchase in either sheets or rolls and in both a lightweight and heavyweight form.
It can be used for many things such as in disaster salvage kits as an absorbent material, for Gore-tex humidification in place of blotters, for capillary washing, with the suction table in place of filter paper, and in phytate treatments for books written in iron gall ink because it is so thin it won’t put stress on the binding. Tek-Wipe can also be used as a support for transporting wet objects and can be used for dry cleaning glass plate negatives.
Kaslyne’s first case study example was the treatment of a print that had been coated in varnish. The Tek-Wipe was soaked in ethanol and placed on the face of the print along with a sheet of Mylar and even weight for 15 minutes. This was repeated twice to make sure all of the varnish was removed from the paper. From the images that were shown in the presentation it appeared that the varnish was solubilized by the ethanol and absorbed by the Tek-Wipe and thus removed from the print.
The second case study was about a hand colored Audubon engraving that had been trimmed and mounted to a pulp board. They determined that the adhesive was strong and mechanical removal was too time consuming so they used a combination of humidification and mechanical removal using Tek-Wipe. For this treatment, sheets of Tek-Wipe were soaked in water and laid out flat. The print was placed back down on the Tek-Wipe and a sheet of acrylic was placed on top with weight added to ensure even contact. Once the pulp board was humidified it was taken out of the stack and the board was removed mechanically with ease. After the board was removed the print could be washed and light bleached.
Since Tek-Wipe is very absorbent and good for washing and varnish removal it gets stained. Don’t worry though, it is washable! It can be washed by hand or in the washing machine and you can reuse it! Kaslyne did warn not to scrub it because it can break the fiber bonds and cause fibrillation. Tek-wipe can be dried on a rack, but it will dry in the shape of its support so Kaslyne recommended flattening it on a table with a brayer with no weight or restraint needed.

44th Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Session, May 16, “A Technical Exploration of a 19th century Qajar Artists’ Album”, by Penley Knipe

Attendees of the Book and Paper Business Meeting, and other early-morning risers, were rewarded with a technical investigation of a 19th century Persian album owned by the Harvard Art Museums, presented by Penley Knipe, the Philip and Lynn Straus Senior Conservator of Works of Art on Paper and Head of Paper Lab at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies.
An exhibition scheduled at the Harvard Art Museums in 2017 will feature the album and other Qajar period work, and Knipe used this opportunity to research and document the various papers, media and techniques. The album is a carefully arranged collection of 141 drawings on paper cut and adhered onto folios of colored paper. Included are, sketches, finished drawings, and design patterns. The album will be disassembled for the exhibition, and rebound after it comes off view, allowing Knipe to complete extensive documentation and research on each sheet. Thus far she has identified seventy-seven wove sheets and forty-seven laid sheets. Twenty-six sheets contained watermarks. Surprisingly, as the watermarks were identified, it was discovered that the majority were of European origin. Seventeen watermarks were Italian, including the Magnani paper mill (Cartiera Magnani, established in the early 15th-century), two were English, and seven watermarks were from the Islamic world. All the watermarks were documented using digital beta radiography. This imaging revealed matching partial watermarks, allowing certain sheets to be reassembled, and adding more clues to the use of the paper. The variety of papers in this album, and preponderance of European papers, provides evidence for the paper trade during this period, as well as the transfer of papermaking technologies between east and west. Knipe’s research will make significant contributions to future scholarship on the history and manufacture of these papers.
After Knipe presented her exploration of the paper in the album, she focused on the techniques employed on the sheets. Many of the drawings were used for transferring images to other objects, evidenced by their pounced or inscribed lines, rubbed media, and thin/transparent quality of the paper supports. As the album was examined, it became clear that the drawings were arranged according to degree of use, and many had not been used at all. Knipe linked some of the patterns to objects bearing very similar designs, and illustrated this by showing us a (transferred) drawing of a long floral pattern next to an image of a lacquered pen box.
Investigation of the various papers and transfer techniques became a teaching tool for a graduate seminar in the Materials Lab at Harvard Art Museums where, over multiple sessions, the materials’ fabrications and use were explored through hands-on activities. The author had an opportunity to visit the Materials Lab after the 44th Annual Meeting, which is stocked full of artists’ materials for a variety of techniques in all media: from screen printing, to ceramics, to gilding. The benefit of teaching with real materials, and practicing the methods firsthand, is clear; for example, sight nuances, such as the manner in which “red chalk” rubs into and stains thin paper is directly observed and becomes much more easily recognizable in actual drawings. Knipe expanded on these practical sessions by leading a graduate seminar later in the year that explored both the media and the papers comprising the album.
Knipe’s research will be incorporated into the upcoming exhibition, where the technical results will be shared online and through gallery talks. In the meantime, high-quality, digital images of the album pages are available to explore online: http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/search-results?q=1960.161.

44th Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Wiki Session, May 15th

The chairs of the Book and Paper Wiki group, Evan Knight, Katherine Kelly, and Denise Stockman, first spoke about the group and its progress on the wiki up to this point. They stressed how valuable the AIC Meeting wiki sessions have been, as they have allowed the wiki coordinators to touch base with their colleagues at least once a year.  The group expressed gratitude for our interest and attendance.
The group has focused on making the wiki more useful and accessible to members of the conservation community. Our wiki is only as good as the engagement of its volunteers, and they recognize that one of their chief roles as coordinators was to reduce any barriers to entry for potential contributors. They pointed specifically to the centralization of instructions within the wiki in the form of the new contributors toolbox, which nicely consolidates hints, guidelines and suggestions.
The Book and Paper Wiki Group also aims to move away from the model of the Paper Conservation Catalog (PCC), and towards a wiki model.  They expect to change the structure and tone of the wiki to make it a more collaborative document. Knight, Kelly, and Stockman emphasized this idea of an evolving resource in their first major question to the larger community of conservators: how much do we alter the PCC as the profession moves forward and makes it out-of-date? They expressed a great respect for the PCC and its many knowledgeable authors, and knew that it was a key reference for many in our profession.
The audience had a lively discussion about this question. They hoped, as one might expect in our field, that the PCC should be preserved in its original form, as it remains a useful record of past practice in our profession. Others offered the opinion that the Wiki should be a current document, and that it would be frustrating to find an entry for a particular technique, only to discover that approach had fallen out of practice. Several solutions were proposed that might allow the wiki to be up-to-date, while still keeping the old PCC intact. The first was to offer the PCC as a pdf on the wiki for anyone to download. Another suggestion was to include a section in the wiki on techniques that had been superseded by more effective measures, complete with references to papers that signaled the change in approach.
The other major question the coordinators had for the community concerned standardizing the language of bookbinding and conservation. Several sources for controlled vocabulary were suggested, and there was discussion about whether they could be adapted to suit our purposes.  Audience members thought that any reasonable source would do, because what the field needed was a lively discussion about vocabulary, and it was agreed that starting from scratch would be counter-productive. Doing something, in short, was better than doing nothing, and the coordinators concurred.
Ultimately, the wiki is making great progress, but needs more contributors. It is moving away from the model of the various conservation catalogues, and towards a more collaborative model of professional information sharing. The wiki offers us the option to begin to standardize our language within our narrow group, but also the possibility to help standardize the way we communicate within our entire profession. Finally, there are a number of things the chairs would like the larger community to send in if possible, including: links for bibliographic references, book and paper conservation tips (for example from AIC tips sessions), and information on materials and tools.

Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Annual Conference — Book and Paper Session, May 16th — “The Coptic Binding Collection at The Morgan Library & Museum: History, Conservation and Access” by Georgia Southworth and Francisco H. Trujillo

Georgia Southworth, Independent Book Conservator, and Frank Trujillo, Associate Book Conservator at The Morgan Library & Museum, closed out Monday morning’s Book and Paper session with a fascinating talk on the history and rehousing of The Morgan’s singular collection of Coptic bindings.
The story of the Coptic bindings at The Morgan Library & Museum began in 1910 with the discovery of a cache of nearly sixty volumes dating from the 9th and 10th centuries CE. Found in Hamouli, Egypt, these volumes made a circuitous journey with stops in France, the United States, and Italy, before coming to rest New York in the 1920s. During the nearly thirty years between their discovery and their arrival at The Morgan, the parchment textblocks were separated from the covers, never to be reuinited. While the textblocks were extensively treated at the Vatican Library, the covers were packed away, presumably with the intention of addressing them at a later time. Unfortunately, World War I and J. Pierpont Morgan’s death interfered with the planned project to photograph and restore the collection, extending the timeline by several years. The covers, which had been consolidated with oil and wax, and in some cases lined with gauze, were not returned to The Morgan until 1929. They remained packed away until 1984, when Deborah Evetts, then the Drue Heinz Book Conservator, found them still stored in their Vatican shipping crates.
The covers are comprised of laminated layers of papyrus covered with leather. The decoration of the leather ranges from simple cold-tooled designs to elaborate compositions incorporating layers of colored and gilt leather and parchment that have been cut, pierced, and interlaced to create complex and beautiful designs.

MS M.569, Gospels binding ca. 850 CE; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
MS M.569, Gospels binding ca. 850 CE;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

The condition of the covers varies widely; while some are almost completely intact, others are brittle, fragmentary, and riddled with wormholes. Attempts to devise a housing method for these exquisite objects had been ongoing since they were re-discovered in 1984. In consultation with Christopher Clarkson, Deborah Evetts performed minor stabilization treatment on a few of the covers, and tested several housing prototypes. The ideal housing would protect and support the covers, while still allowing for easy access and viewing of both sides of each board.
Previous prototypes included deep sinkmats, Plexiglas sandwiches, and simple matboard folders lined with glassine. One prototype was made of layers of Plexiglas cut to fit the perimeter of the cover to create a customized well. Unfortunately, this design was also heavy, and caused the fragile covers to rest against a hard surface.
Two Coptic cover housing prototypes, with half-size facsimile covers; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
Two Coptic cover housing prototypes, with half-size facsimile covers;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

Coptic cover housing prototype, showing layers of custom-cut Plexiglas; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
Coptic cover housing prototype, showing layers of custom-cut Plexiglas;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

The final housing design incorporated the idea of a custom recess, and used separate layers to allow the sides of each cover to be viewed without direct handling.
The material selected to create the well was soft, inert, non-abrasive Volara foam. Each cover was carefully traced, and the outlines were sent to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where they were laser cut into the foam. The layers of foam are sandwiched between two pieces of 1/8” Artcare archival foam board to create a light and rigid support. A full sheet of Volara is adhered to each piece of foamboard, and two inner layers of Volara are laser cut to the shape of each cover. These wells are slightly larger than the covers, providing protection without actually touching the fragile edges.
Inner sandwich of foamboard and Volara; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
Inner sandwich of foam board and Volara;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

Foam pegs keep the layers aligned, but allow them to be separated to expose the sides of the covers. When closed, the layers are held securely in place by these pegs, allowing the sandwich to be flipped to show the verso of the cover. This light, rigid sandwich is stored inside a Talas e-flute reinforced clamshell box. A linen tab was added to the interior of each box to facilitate removal of the sandwich. For easy storage, three standard sizes of clamshell were selected.
The final enclosure solution for the Coptic covers, showing custom Volara trays, linen pull tab, and e-flute clamshell box; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
The final enclosure solution for the Coptic covers, showing custom Volara trays, linen pull tab, and e-flute clamshell box;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

This solution worked well for the covers and large fragments. Smaller fragments were stored separately in Mylar envelopes, which were barcoded to associate them with their parent binding. These envelopes of fragments were stored together in a separate box.
Fragments were stored separately, in bags barcoded to associate them with the correct binding; Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
Fragments were stored separately, in bags barcoded to associate them with the correct binding;
Image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

The final element of this project was the creation of high-resolution images of all the bindings. These images are currently being processed, and will soon be available to the public via The Morgan’s website. In the meantime, I’m sure that many of us will have ideas for applying this novel housing concept to objects in our own collections. Thank you, Georgia and Frank, for an excellent talk!

Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Annual Conference — Book and Paper Session, May 16th — “Push Pins, Staples, Daylight, Glazing and Barrier Free: Are conservation standards becoming too relaxed?” by Joan Weir

In the BPG session on Monday, May 16, Joan Weir gave voice to a question that has undoubtedly plagued the sleep of many of her colleagues: are conservation standards, particularly when it comes to exhibition, becoming too relaxed? In her role as Conservator for Works of Art on Paper at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ms. Weir has gained extensive experience with the challenges of exhibiting contemporary art. Noting that the range of artifacts classified as “works of art on paper” is very broad, Weir commented that it can be difficult to set consistent boundaries and guidelines for exhibition practices. Some touchstones are available to conservators, including AIC’s Code of Ethics and intellectual property laws. I was interested to learn that in Canada, artists retain “moral rights” to their work, even if they no longer hold economic rights to the work. This moral right allows artists to protect their work from changes that might compromise their original intent, including changes in how the work is displayed.*
To illustrate the challenges inherent in exhibiting contemporary art, Weir presented several case studies. The first example was Richard Serra’s 9’ by 21’ oilstick on paper, Untitled, 1974 (presented at the 2013 AIC Annual Meeting, and blogged by Karen Dabney). The artist’s intention was that the work be stapled directly to the gallery wall, and shown without any barrier. Weir and her colleagues collaborated with Serra and a studio assistant to develop a protocol for installing the work, which toured to several locations. They created mockups to practice the installation protocol, and to try to answer what Weir called “a world of nerdy conservation questions,” such as: what kind of staples should be used? What kind of stapler? Do the staple bands need to come into contact with the paper? Should existing staple holes be used? The same two-person team traveled to all exhibition venues to carry out the installation, and an agreement was reached to station a guard in the gallery at all times, to compensate for the lack of a physical barrier. While the protocol was largely successful, Weir noted that it is often the case that “once you go there, you can’t go back” – stapling is now considered an option for other exhibits.
The next case study was installation of large, unglazed wax pastels for AGO’s 2015 exhibition Stephen Andrews POV, which were hung using a temporary tab of sheer polyester attached to the work using Beva and heat, and stapled to the wall. The artist liked this system so well that he requested that the tabs be left attached to the works he loaned for the show. Low platform barriers were used for this exhibition, but AGO staff noted the presence of footprints on top of the platforms, suggesting that the barrier was not entirely successful.
Throughout her presentation, Weir emphasized the importance of dialog between conservators, curators, and artists. Natural light presents a special set of challenges. Weir cited an exhibit of Marcel Dzama’s work, in which over 100 works were rotated into 33 frames to minimize individual light exposure. She also described a large watercolor on canvas by Silke Otto-Knapp, which was shown unglazed in a gallery with uncovered windows. In that case, the artist shared information about the materials used to create the work, allowing conservators to determine that it was likely to be stable in the gallery conditions.
Through these examples, Weir made a compelling case that our job as conservators is to adapt to changing conventions and exhibition practices, while still ensuring the safety of the artwork. By engaging in early, frequent, and open communication with stakeholders, including the artist, and by thinking creatively about solutions to exhibition challenges, conservators can be good stewards not only of the physical object, but of the artist’s conceptual intent.
*I am not a legal scholar, and I apologize if I mischaracterized the implications of Canadian copyright law!

44th Annual Meeting & 42nd Annual Conference – Book and Paper Session, May 16, “Paper Tapestry: Wallpaper Preservation” by Joanna P. McMann

Joanna McMann, Assistant Conservator at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, was incredibly busy in Montreal, presenting two talks at the Book and Paper specialty session! This presentation outlined the work completed for the Spadina Museum in Toronto, Ontario. The historic house museum opened in 1984, and has been the subject of restoration treatment previously, as presented in the 2011 CAC-ACCR conference in Winnipeg: https://www.cac-accr.ca/files/pdf/e-cac-conference-2011.pdf (see page 20 for the abstract of “Wallpaper Reproduction Goes Digital”).

Photo of "Paper Tapestry: Wallpaper Preservation" presentation by Joanna P. McMann
Photo of servants’ hallway and wallpaper, from “Paper Tapestry: Wallpaper Preservation” by Joanna P. McMann.

 
The 1912-1913 third floor servants’ hallway had not been restored, and the floral-patterned wallpaper’s in situ stabilization was McMann’s goal. There were a number of condition issues including losses, abrasions, delamination of wallpaper from the wall, water staining, tearing, and significant soot, dust, and grime, resulting from the area being used as a storage space. The wallpaper’s paper substrate was pulpy and weak, and its media was water-soluble. McMann found that a modified technique of the full-scale digital printing previously used was necessary to complete the conservation project in the short timeframe of the month of December. There was 500 square feet of wallpaper requiring treatment, requiring a specific coding system to map the damage efficiently.
Surface cleaning was completed using goat-hair brushes and latex-free makeup sponges. The fragments were carefully cleaned, and cracks were cleaned with the makeup sponges and Absorene chemical absorbing sponges. McMann remarked on the effectiveness of this, allowing the cracks to recede into the overall aesthetic of the wall.
Delaminated wallpaper was re-adhered to the wall with a very dry wheat starch paste, gouges were pulp-filled, smoothed, and toned, and if necessary, damaged plaster was filled.
Losses were divided by size, so that medium – large losses were filled with the digitally printed reproduction papers, and small losses were filled with papers that were toned with watercolour. Using this coding system, more than 600 infills and 63 losses/abrasions were completed and treated! Three rounds of proofing were used to produce a quality output of the reproductive wallpaper paper, and the printed paper was split mechanically while damp as the reproduction paper was thick overall and chamfering was not possible. All fills were first done with toned Japanese tissue, in order to ensure a sympathetic colour if abrasions were to occur again, as the area will remain used as storage space after stabilization. The large losses required precise alignment before they were trimmed, and a combination of methyl cellulose and wheat starch paste was used to adhere and to allow for some slip during alignment.
Final toning was done using acrylics and a number of different light sources, to ensure compatibility to the viewer.
McMann presented the challenges and problem-solving techniques needed for the completion of the project to the very interested audience. She guided us through the stabilization of the servants’ area, noting its imortance to the Spadina (Spa-deenah or Spa-dinah depending on your class status in the nineteenth century!) Museum, as they have gained the title of being “Toronto’s Downton Abbey” and have exhibited costumes from the popular BBC drama.